Idiom’s Delight

When I was in Columbus recently, I met a reader that I’ve known for a long time….

For those of you who have been reading the blog for a while, you might recognize her name: Carly Trowbridge.

She told me that she really liked the Cealdish idiom that I put into Name of the Wind, “Don’t put a spoon in your eye over it.”

For those of you who don’t know, an idiom is a phrase that means something other than what it means. For example, when you “pull someone’s leg” you’re not *really* pulling their leg, you’re teasing them. You’re telling a joke.

I love idioms, especially foreign idioms. For example, in German, you can say, “Du hast ein vogel.” Literally, it means, “you have a bird” but what it *really* means is “You’re crazy.”

Another one I like goes like this: “Jim likes to drag people through the cocco.” but what it really means is that Jim likes to trick people and pull jokes on them.

Anyway, Carly told me that she and her friends started making up their own fake idioms. Her favorite was “I’m angry enough to punch mirrors.”

So I’m throwing open the doors. Feel free to share your favorite foreign idioms in the comments below.

In German, people who are overly correct are either called “Pfenningfuchser” (penny foxer, doesn’t make much sense here) or “Korinthenkacker” (raisin pooper). My brother sort of exaggerated the last one “Korinthen kacken mit anschließendem Rundlutschen” (pooping raisins and sucking them until they’re round). :D

Similar in dutch but then it’s ‘mierenneuker’ which means ant f…r
We also have a similar saying (a little more approved for all ages) that means the same but is more about the process of being one:
‘spijkers op laag water zoeken’=finding nails in shallow water.

Lots of good dutch sayings ill post some personal favorites but couldn’t resist the reply here seeing the similarity ;)

Regarding the German idiom “Du hast einen Vogel”: There is something that always puzzles me – you can make this idiom even more specific by saying “Du hast eine Meise” which translates into “You have a tomtit/chickadee (or whatever is the correct name for that particular kind of bird)”. Literally, it still means “You are crazy.”

You cannot replace this bird with any other, for example “Du hast einen Spatz” (You have a sparrow) or “Du hast einen Raben” (You have a raven) – no German would understand what that means.

What puzzles me is this: While some birds have specific characteristics attributed to them (diebische Elster – thieving magpie), I never heard that tomtwits/chickadees are considered to be remarkably crazy. So why is it perfectly normal for us Germans to tell “Du hast eine Meise” to a crazy person?

There is a very cool polish idiom: “Nie ucz ojca dzieci robić”. Literally it means – do not teach your father how to “make” children. It is used when someone is trying to teach you something that you already know how to do, probably even better than that person.
Another one I like is: “Ryba psuje się od głowy”. It translates to something like – the fish goes bad beginning with its head. It means that the corruption always starts at the top.

I’m Cajun, and there are some weird things we say, but my mom and grandmother both have the same response when a kid says they want something. “Put what you want in one hand and shit in the other. See which one fills up faster.” It means I don’t care. :p

My favourite idiom in English is “to take three sheets to the wind” for getting heavily drunk. In German we don’t have such a sophisticated way to describe this particular process. In German I always liked the expression “Da fress ich einen Besen!” which means you find something you been told very unlikley and don’t believe it. It translate to “I’m going to eat a broom”.

There is a very similar polish one. We say “prędzej mi tu kaktus wyrośnie” and that means that we do not believe smthing is going to happen. Literal translation would be “I will sooner grow a cactus on my hand”.

Wow, the last thing I would expect to ever read on this blog is a Swabian idiom! I’m a Swabian who has resided in Chicago for the last decade. So, each time I read or see something that reminds me of home (Haigerloch), it just warms my heart. Thank you for that! Or should I say Dank’ schee!

Yeah I also like idioms with a bit of a background. For example “des Pudels Kern” (literally the core of the poodle) means the (real) reason behind something. It is a direct quote from Faust by Goethe where Faust says “Das also war des Pudels Kern” when he finally realizes that the poodle that was following him was the devil himself.

Not really with a background, but I also like “Ich empfehle mich” which literally translates to “I recommend myself” but means something like “I’m about to go now”.

Another Polish one, “przywaliłeś jak łysy grzywką o kant kuli”. We say it to somebody who has just said something incredibly stupid. Literally it means “you hit it like a bald man with his fringe/bangs (hits) the edge of a sphere”.

In German there is “Du hast ja nicht alle Tassen im Schrank”, it’s kind of the same as “einen Vogel haben”/”you are not right in the head”, is used in other circumstances and translates something as “You don’t have all cups in the cupboard”, sounds even funnier in english i think!

We also have the idiom in dutch: “Beter 1 vogel in de hand, dan 10 in de lucht” which translates to “It’s better to have one bird in your hands, than having ten in the sky”. It means that you can better be happy with little instead of dreaming of much and having nothing.

There is a pervert version of this one too :) “Beter 1 poesje in de hand dan de lucht van 10″, which translates to “It’s better to have one pussy in your hands, than the smell of ten”.

I like ‘in the sky’ to mean ‘dreaming of much and having nothing,’ wheras in English, I always thought that ‘in the bush’ meant more specifically, holding out for something that might happen and overlooking what’s in front of you.

There’s a nearly identical saying in Russian, but it sounds quite absurd when translated into English:
“better a tit in hand than a crane in the sky”.
(“tit” and “crane” are birds :) Russian sayings can be very specific at times :))

Looks like that one is really popular. The version we have in German is “Besser ein Spatz in der Hand als eine Taube auf dem Dach” – “better a sparrow in the hand than a dove on the roof”. Which may be doubly true because all the doves are doing nowadays is sh*t… ;)

OK, you need to know about a great “board” game called Wise and Otherwise. It’s like Balderdash or Dictionary Dabble in the way it’s played, but with obscure idioms rather than obscure words. The idea is that there are a bunch of cards with idioms on them, and each round the reader will read the first half of one along with its source. “There’s an old West African saying: ‘The hyena knows. . .’” and then everyone writes down an ending and gives it to the reader, who shuffles and reads them all. You get points for voting for the real one, and you get points if other players vote for yours. So much fun, and I’ve definitely heard idioms created on the spot that were better – and wiser! – than the original.

In Dutch: Nou breekt mijn klomp! which translates to: Now breaks my wooden shoe. You can use this when you cannot believe something is happening. I love that this idiom is so typically Dutch it even uses our historical footwear :)

Another German one: “Da wird ja der Hund in der Pfanne verrückt!”Literally, it says “The dog in the pan gets all crazy!”
You usually use that one to express astonishment about something, e.g. some unexpected news.

In Swedish we have “att vara på kanelen” (literally “to be on the cinnamon”), meaning to be drunk off your arse. There’s also “karatefylla” (“karate drunkenness”), meaning the same thing – the logic being you’re so intoxicated that you’re like to fall as if having been knocked out. We’ve also got “få ändan ur vagnen” or “få tummen ur arslet” (getting one’s “rear end out of the wagon” and one’s “thumb out of one’s arse”, respectively), meaning to get going, stop procrastinating – although a more appropriately vulgar equivalent would be the American “to stop slacking and get shit done”.

My mother used to say “shit or get off the pot”. She used the expression quite forcefully when my brother was stringing along the woman who eventually became his wife…….he wanted to propose but was paralyzed by fear……they are still happily married 23 years later.

This one’s from Venice, Italy: “Son del gatto”. Literally: “I belong to the cat” or “the cat owns me”. It means: I’m in deep trouble. Let me explain this one better, have you ever seen a cat catching a mouse? Have you noticed cats don’t kill their preys right away? Well, there you go.

There are a few Swedish equivalents to “not being the sharpest too in the shed/knife in the drawer” which I like, such as: “Du har inte alla hästar i stallet” (You don’t have all your horses in the stables) and the more modern “Du har inte alla chips i påsen” (You don’t have all the chips/crisps in the bag).

There’s this one mixed metaphor which I cannot stop using. The saying “Bränt barn skyr elden” (A burnt child fears fire – or the more alliterating “Burnt babe fears fire”) means that one avoids things which one has had bad experiences with. So I came across “Bränt barn luktar illa”, meaning “Burnt babe smells awful”. Horrible, morbid, and yet somehow incredibly fun.

I’ve heard a Southern American follow up to ‘not the sharpest tool in the shed’, which is ‘hammers don’t need to be sharp’. referring to someone who may not be smart but is useful/a good person/a dangerous person.

In Italian there is “In bocca lupo” which literally means “in the wolf’s mouth”, but idiomatically means good luck, rather like the english “break a leg”. I believe it refers to the legend of Romulus and Remus, but I’ve heard other explanations. One of the more plausible was that shepherds would hire wolf hunters, who would walk through town with the head of a wolf, and use it as a container for payment.

I really like idioms in foreign languages. They can sound so weird. And it could be a lot of fun trying to guess or reason out what the idiom means.

For instance in Bulgaria we have

От дъжд на вятър (Ot dazd na vjatar)

Literally it means “From rain to wind” or in spanish – “De lluvia a viento”

While it actually means ‘rarely’, ‘from time to time’ (which is probably the english variant of the idiom)

Neither in spanish nor in english makes much sense, but it is common frase in Bulgaria and most don’t think how strange it is literally.
Each language have these frases and so it is pretty reading those here.

One I loved when I visited Hungary was: Tele van a hócipőm. Which I believe translates to: my snow shoes/boots are full of you/it. Basically: I’m fed up with you/fed up with the situation/etc. At least that was how it was explained to me, given that I know virtually no Hungarian, I can only assume I was told correctly.

A few Australian offerings:
‘She’ll be apples’ (everything’s OK)
‘Flat out like a lizard drinking’ (doing nothing)
‘Wouldn’t shout if a shark bit him’ (won’t buy a round of drinks)
‘Drier than a dead dingo’s donger’ (very thirsty)
‘Cheers, bells on’ (thank you, I shall certainly attend)
‘Do the Holt’ (Leave. Rhymes with ‘bolt’, but also refers to Harold Holt, an Australian Prime Minister who disappeared in 1967 while swimming at the beach. Australians are tremendously proud of his skill at hide and seek.)
‘Bushman’s hanky’ (clearing one’s nose by occluding one nostril with a finger, and exhaling violently out the other towards the ground. No further equipment required.)
Most of the rest of Strine consists of fairly.. colourful.. terms of abuse.

I don’t know any cool foreign idioms. But my patents dropped a few winners on me when I was a kid.

My mom used to get mad enough to ”stomp baby chickens”. Every time I say this it horrifies my wife.
My dad could cook things that tasted so good it’d make your “tongue lick your brains out”.
I’ve always been a fan of “wanting in one hand and spitting* in the other to see which will fill up first”.

Idioms certainly are a delight!
And I’m fascinated by how many german fans you seem to have.

Anyhow, there’s another german idiom I quite like:
“Die Kirche im Dorf lassen”, “lass die Kirche im Dorf!”
It translates to “leaving the church in the town”, “leave the church in the town!”
and means to not over-do it, or to not overreact.

“Pelo de concha tira mas que yunta de bueyes” – A pussy’s hair pulls harder than an ox: Acting dumb or against one’s nature for women. I’ve heard it with dick instead of pussy, but it’s not that common (I guess women are smarter that way)

“En casa de herrero, cuchillo de palo” – In a blacksmith’s house, a wooden knife. It’s when someone messes up something he really knows and does everyday.

I live in Argentina, which was very open to immigrants, so most of our idioms were already submitted in their original forms.

I remember when you originally posted Ms. Trowbridge’s entry…it’s as wonderful now as it was then. It just makes me feel good when I read it, all full of whimsy and cleverness. I’d send in something like it if I had the same skill, but you know, as they say, “That dog won’t hunt.” ;)

In Cologne there is a saying “Do häs ene Ratsch em Kappes”, which translates into “Du hast einen Riss im Kohl” in German which again translates into “You have a crack in the cabbage” which really means that you aren’t quite rigth in the head. Something similar is the saying “Du bist nicht ganz dicht” which translates into “You’re not very tight”, which is funny beacause it’s the negation of a similar word like “dense” but means the same.

* Put a pig in your pocket.
* Wish in one hand, shit in the other, and see which one fills up quickest.
* What’s time to a pig?
* Tighter than a bull’s ass in fly season.
* Go sing to stones.
* Dumb as a box of rocks.

There’s a German one I can’t seem to remember right now. Something about a pig… I think. Used to hear it as a kid all the time.

You know how, in English, we say “it’s Greek to me” when something is incomprehensible? In Greek, they would say it was either Arabic or Chinese. Romanian speakers say Turkish, and Turkish speakers say French. So someone made a diagram:

I see German’s missing in that diagram… We say “Spreche ich Chinesisch rückwärts (oder was)?!” “Am I talking Chinese backwards (or what)?!”
But in the original sense, it would be “Kauderwelsch” (probably translates as gibberish), or if you don’t understand a certain topic, it’s “böhmische Dörfer” (Bohemian villages).

Oh, I just remembered this one: “Wenn es dem Esel zu wohl ist, geht er aufs Eis (tanzen)”, but I currently have a hard time translating into proper english… maybe “When the donkey (or ass) feels too well he goes on the ice for a dance” or something like that. It means that someone acts too careless just because up to that point everything went well.

Heard this one a couple years ago, it’s stuck with me. I believe it’s from the American South originally: “It’s not your job to push dead bears up trees.” Meaning, as far as I can tell, “This impossible situation is not your responsibility to fix.”

A Dutch friend of mine was really annoyed with me one day, and told me “iemand achter het behang plakken” which translates to wanting to glue someone behind the wallpaper. So now when I’m really annoyed with someone, I say ‘behind the wallpaper with you!’ Love it.

Hold the fort! I have a bone to pick with this thread! Ever since I was knee high to a grasshopper, I get the willies when someone gets carried away by the smell of their own bullshit. You must have rocks in your head if you think highly of someone sitting like a bump on a log in front of their computer waxing poetic is going to blow your mind. Now, I’m of fine feather when you want to get the jump on someone for belly rolls, but dollar for dollar I pride myself for being as fun as a barrel of monkeys when push comes to shove. So if you’re felling too big for your britches, bring on the band, bitches, and I show you a thing or two about a thing or two. What. What?!

It’s from the south and referred to how everyone had a different way to skin a catfish. Which makes sense with the meaning of “there’s more than just one way of doing things.” It got shortened to cat over time and now sounds very disturbing.

Here are a couple of Persian idioms. I’ve put in the literal translations to English and what they mean:
1. Stuck in the mud like a donkey – in an impasse
2.Step aside and let the wind come -I don’t want to see you in front of me right now
3.Putting watermelons under someone’s arm- to say things to someone that they want to hear about themselves which aren’t genuine
4.Offering from king’s purse- offering/promising money or things to someone that aren’t really yours to offer
5. Have I sold you wet kindling?- why did you do something bad to me when I’ve never done anything bad to you

I studied Persian briefly, not nearly long enough to learn any of these. But they all fit in so well with ta’arouf – that ritualized, elaborate politeness that’s so odd to English speakers. Even those that seem confrontational sound rather courtly.

A friend that speaks French (I think it was French, probably) told me that instead of saying “window shopping,” as we do in the USA, they say “window licking.” The idea of literally licking store windows just makes me crack up.

My girlfriend once said the words “jumping the fence” when she was either trying to say jumping the shark or straddling the fence. We then decided that jumping the fence was to be an idiom for mixing up your idioms…

Here in Northern Denmark, we have a very local saying. It’s used when conveying extreme excitement or ironical excitement(us from northern Jutland are generally considered annoyingly ironic and sarcastic) — the saying goes like this(there are variations but this is the one I heard first — note there is a English idiom similar to this, but lacking a certain panache. And I heard it the first time said by someone who hadn’t read a single word of English in his life, and this was way before the Internet): det er bedre end et spark i bollerne(it’s better than a kick in the balls(literal trans of bollerne: the buns))

I know that it’s also used in English but in Danish it has a dark comedic touch missing in English.

Also, nothing smells worse than giant pig farms. Really! No-thing! And we have a lot of those in Denmark, and in northern Jutland in particuliar. I was visiting a giant pig farm. And those a frightening places really. And they smell really really awfull. Pigs shit a lot. Lots of pigs in one place…..

Well, I was gagging a bit, and the pig farmer, being used to that thumped me hard on the back, laughed and said, “ved du hvad min dreng? Det er penge du kan lugte.” (You know what son? That there, is the smell of money)

Later I realized that this is a rather deep and interesting metaphor. And quite useful when thinking about money and what one goes through to accumulate it…

*When someone (e.g., a young child) keeps annoying you by asking “how?” (“как?”) a lot, you can respond: “каком кверху” — “with the ‘how’ side up”. (there are also phonetic connotations which I’m not translating here :)

* “Работа не волк, в лес не убежит” — “work isn’t a wolf, it won’t run away [into the forest]” (i.e., you can do something else, work can wait:)

I remember when I first was reading The Name of the Wind. I was on a week-long study trip with my high school classmates, and lying on my bed in our eight-man room. Everyone was there, doing their own thing, and it was pretty quiet. Suddenly, I just started laughing, and I think someone asked me what was so funny. Somehow, between giggles, I managed to stammer “Don’t put a spoon in your eye over it.” Apparently, they found it pretty weird.

There’s a couple of old Irish phrases and the like, some of them are odd, like “Taim ar muin na muice” which literally translates as I’m on the pigs back or in other words it means Sure I’m great, life is good….ya get the gist.

Another one is “Na ceithre rud is measa amu- beal seirbh, an ceann tinn, intinn bhuartha agus poca folamh” which literally means The four least useful things- a bitter mouth, a headache, a worry and an empty pocket. Neatly sums up a hangover (or maybe a plum bomb? ;)

In irish ”chomh mistuama le muc ar leac oigher” translates to as awkward as a pig on ice, ”Aithníonn ciaróg
ciaróg eile.” translates to one cockroach recognises another(meaning bad recognises bad), ”chomh bodhar le slis” translates to deaf as a post ( meaning hard of hearing).
There are also some weird phrases in Ireland that confuse tourists a lot, like ”we’re sucking diesel now” means things are going great, and ”he couldn’t hit a cows arse with a banjo” means he has terrible aim, and ”christ on a bike” is an expression of disbelief, oh and ”grand soft day” means the weather isn’t great.

There’s a new one for me, as awkward as a pig on ice! Fair play you’ve brought in a few good ones there.

Another good few are “he/she couldnt bate snow of a rope” or “he/she’s about as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike” which both mean they are useless/lazy people. Another one is “he/she is like a bulldog chewin nettles” or “he/she is as thick as a ginnit” = they are angry arseholes. And lastly, my own favourite is “keep her lit” which means to give encouragement.

I was just telling my husband about Kvothe’s favorite Cealdish idiom, because it’s mine too!

After that, I love the German word for a wimp that translate to a “man who sits down to pee” (thanks, John Green!), and the French phrase for he’s crazy that translates to “he’s got a spider in the ceiling.”

There was a bit of a fad in Germany a couple of years ago, where people came up with all kinds of terms for “wimp”. The most popular, as far as I can tell, were “Warmduscher” (“warm-water-showerer”) and “Schattenparker” (“shady-spot-parker”). Using the same compact grammar, but with a slightly different meaning, we have “Dünnbrettbohrer” – “thin-board-driller”, someone superficial and incapable of mental “heavy lifting”.

Not truely an idiom or foreign, but sometimes my mom will say ‘the hot glue from the hot glue gun is hot’ often in reference to accidentally touching hot glue but other times in reference to things that are absurdly obvious and should be general knowledge.

I love idioms too! Now I remember one in Portuguese, “matar dois coelhos com uma cajadada só”. It litterally means “to kill two rabbits with only one hit of a staff”. We say it when many problems are solved with only one action.
This idiom is generally used in a positive context , but I’ve always felt bad about using the killing of rabbits as a metaphore to something good :)

“to kill two rabbits with only one hit of a staff” has the equivalent “kill two birds with one stone” in English, and “kill two flies with one slap” in Swedish – it seems to occur in lots of languages with variations to which animal gets killed and by what method.

Yeah we have this in germany in another way: “Die Kuh vom Eis ziehen/holen” which literally means “Pull the cow from the ice” and is used to encourage somebody if something bad has happend (in terms of “let’s get the cow down there and move on”)

Here’s another swedish one. “Tappad bakom vagnen” meaning that someone is a bit dumber than the average. Literally it means dropped behind the wagon (in this case a baby stroller). Implying that the person was dropped on the head as an infant, causing his mind to not develop as much. :)

A German idiom that I’m fond of: “sich (nicht) die Butter vom Brot nehmen lassen” – “(not) let someone take the butter off your bread” – let someone take away, or reap the profits from, something you worked for and intended to enjoy.

Inventing idioms? I have this unfortunate habit of following some odd association in the middle of making a point or telling a story. So I’m halfway through, say, a story of why my ankle is bruised, when I start thinking of another story vaguely relating to the subject of the first, and start telling that one from start to finish before returning to continue my first story. I refer to this behaviour as “going out on a peninsula”. So now, to forewarn any listeners when I’m about to do that (since it’s quite annoying), I say something which would translate to ” ‘ware peninsula”, and they know what it means. =)

The blind pig one reminded me of another mixed up, or rather combinated, idiom:
“Auch ein blindes Huhn findet mal ein Korn” translates to “even a blind chicken eventually finds a grain”, meaning even a stupid or untalented person can do it right (if only by accident). Since “Korn” is also a kind of liquor, the idiom is sometimes changed to “even a blind chicken eventually drinks a Korn”.

Another idiom about grain is “die Flinte ins Korn werfen” which translates to “throwing the gun away into the grainfield” (thus abandoning the war instead of fighting), and means “giving up”.

Now we sometimes combine the two about the chicken and the gun and say “if you throw your gun into the grainfield, watch out so you don’t hit a blind chicken”, meaning “if you have to give up, try not to hurt innocent bystanders in the process”.

My husband’s papaw used to say, “You can’t play pool with a rope.” Pretty sure everyone here knows what THAT means.

One day, my dad said, “Hey, why don’t you just tell him (your boss) exactly what you think?” And I replied, “Oh no! Not this little grey duck. No way!” He nearly peed his pants laughing. Not sure where I got it, but I’ve been saying it for years. It means, of course, you may *think* I’m gullible/stupid but I’m NOT. I’m a swan, not a duck, and I see no reason to blindly follow the ducklings (or orders, for that matter).

I’m particularly fond of “the whole nine yards.” My favorite teacher ever taught me that it actually meant firing all nine yards of ammunition in fighter planes, but of course we now use it to mean going to extremes to accomplish something.

2 of my favorites are “Doing _____ is like herding cats.” i.e. the task is impossible.
and
“The F—–g wizard did it!” My friends and I use it to explain how something completely random and implausible happens.

Sorry I joined in so late! While the British say someone has ‘a screw loose’ if they’re a bit mad, and we use that expression too, Aussies also say someone is “a sandwich short of a picnic”, or ‘has a few kangaroos loose in the top paddock’.

I believe I represent a large demographic of fans when I say: Give us a spoiler! Please, give us at least a rough estimate of when we can expect the next book. Though I enjoy and approve of all your side projects, it’s really frustrating when months can pass without even hearing you so much as complain about all the revision you’re doing on Book Three. Not to mention not knowing if we can expect it within a year, or if we have to wait as many as five years, makes the wait so much more excruciating. So please, help us be patient. Either give us a tentative, rough estimation of when when to expect Book Three, or at least reassure us that progress is being made by the simple act of bitching about the work you’re putting into it.

It’ll be done when it’s done, have some patience. We know progress is being made simply by the fact that Pat is still alive — the only time he’s not working on Book 3 is when he’s in the hospital after fighting with a bear over a territorial dispute, and that’s only until they can get his fingers finging again.

Why do you feel entitled to updates regarding the book? Are you his publisher? Are you his agent? I’m dubious as to your claim of representing a large demographic, but I’ll throw my own claim in here: I think I’m speaking for a much larger demographic in saying that I want Pat to take as much damn time as he needs to finish this book, because I want a book that is going to enthrall me just as much as the the first two. You should appreciate the fact that you have access of ANY magnitude to Pat’s writing process as it certainly isn’t an obligation of his to keep you informed. We just finished up an awesome kickstarter in which both Pat and Albino Dragon graciously gave us a window throughout the entirety into the conception and design of beautiful pieces of art. We laughed with them, cried with them, and reveled together in the nerdy satisfaction we all felt in watching Pat direct Shane on the smallest details of our beloved characters. Be happy with what you’ve got and what’s soon to come, rather than pooing all over the parade. And so with that I conclude my rebuke and present my idiom, which I’m 87% sure is original:

How many months late was Book Two? And he wasn’t tied up in a fifth of the side projects he’s doing now. Honestly, I do wonder what his publisher and agents think. I’m sure they’re aware of the discontent the late release of the second book generated, and they probably realize that a lot of fans are starting to get irritated watching these constant updates on his blog about everything imaginable *except* for progress on his book.

As far as your take on the size of the demographics we each champion, you’re wrong. Not a single fan here would be unhappy to get a solid update on the book. In fact, you’d all be ecstatic! The demographic you represent are the disgustingly fawning fans; the Rothfuss Elitists with goddamned Author Stockholm Syndrome. Are you so afraid of bugging him that you won’t even ask for an update? The reason more people don’t ask isn’t because they don’t want to hurt Pat’s feelings – it’s because that they know they’ll be ridiculed by fans like you. The loud minority. The goddamned cult followers.

And why do I feel entitled to updates regarding the book? I don’t. I asked for them, nothing more. But I do think that the author fan relationship is give and take. He entertains us, and in return we buy his product which gives him money to live. Not to mention all the times he calls on his fans to support Worldbuilders, etc. After all the time and energy and money he gets from his fans, the least he can do is give us a fucking ETA on his third book.

The third book will come out when it comes out, regardless of how much “warning” we have about ETAs. Nagging about it coming out and ETAs won’t make it happen any faster, hell it could cause a nervous break down. He has a life, and surprisingly it is all about book 3. He has a young son, who he is absolutely in love with. You should just be happy that he hasn’t but book 3 on the shelf to spend all his time with his son. BE PATIENT.

ICANHAS’ request was polite and free from meanspiritedness, which is more than can be said for yours.

Yeah, we know that Pat doesn’t like giving updates. Maybe ICANHAS doesn’t. I think we can play a little nicer on the internet than calling them an asshole and telling them to shut the fuck up. (Would that be an acceptable response if somebody asked Pat at a Con how D3 was coming?)

Hi ericturner29
Actually I do think it was justified.
If anything I could easely have used meaner words and in real life I would proberly have used a rolled newspaper to give him a small twat at the back of his head to get my point across.

His name (in all caps), his tone, his assumption that what and where Pat spends his time is somethinghe should have a say in and the fact that assumes the right to sing it with “sincerely your fans” all added up to pissing me off.

teh reason it aggravates me so is that a real fan would know waht effect it has on Pat. You know the kind of fan who would have bothered to read the FAQ and thereby learned how Pat reacts to constant harrasment about when a given book is ready.

I´d love for book 3 to be finnish as much as any other fan, but I would never assume to be in a position to demand updates or tell Pat how to spend his time.
Nor would I be such a coward to do it under a ridiculous anonymous username and signing it on behalf of anyone but myself.

In real life I am a two war USMC Infantry combat veteran – hit me in the head with a newspaper and I’d knock your teeth out.

Honestly, I’ve followed this blog since it first started up. I’ve read the FAQs and I understand how Pat feels. I also know that, during the build up to the release of Book Two, he kept his fans much more appraised of his progress.

I don’t presume to demand that Pat should spend his time according to my whims. All I’m asking is for an update – and I think a lot of his fans feel the same way, but are maybe too afraid to say anything for fear of being ridiculed by an elitist fan like yourself.

And honestly…do you have any idea how easy it would be for Pat to give an update? It would probably take him less than three minutes to walk to his computer, pull up his blog, type, “X months till Book Three, but don’t hold me on that.” and then go back to whatever he was doing. I don’t think asking him to do that is such a horrible thing.

Pat updated us on April 22nd if you bothered to watch. He said the book wouldn’t be out this year, but it also probably wouldn’t take til 2015.
With my magical skills of deduction, I took that to mean sometime in 2014, and considering what went down with WMF updates, I wouldn’t expect him to get much more specific than that.

Here’s the link again, give it a watch, really enjoyable and EXTRA long – which is the best!

I never understood the idiom “to make sheep eyes at” someone, to mean being in love… sheep’s eyes are strange and unsettling.

I like “the pot calling the kettle black” because it always seems to apply… usually you are guilty of the very thing you accuse others of! Also, I like to use “a little bird told me…” once in awhile because it allows me to gossip without giving away my source :)

Having lived on a farm with several sheep, I can tell you that they are simply the stupidest, most self-immolating creatures capable of (occasional) self-locomotion. Ours got “lost” in the corner of their pen…not occasionally, but every single morning.

Be sure that when you stare into a sheep’s eyes, there’s nothing staring back. If I was a wolf, I wouldn’t eat sheep for fear of catching the stupid.

I think this is a suitable metphore for what young love does to you. Or at least what it did to me….

When I worked with sheep, I joked that a flock is very much like an organism with only one brain cell (kind of like the old depiction of the Furies having one eye to pass between them, as in Clash of the Titans).
You can watch a flock to find the one who currently has the brain cell – it’s the one in the front – but when the have to turn, you can see them confusedly juggling the braincell around: “OMG, we need to go left, I NEED THE BRAIN CELL!”

Anyway, other ruminants who’ve had their eyes immortalized in idioms of a lovesick gaze are does, calves, and cows. I’m betting it has to do with all of them being dumb as posts and prone to being romanticized by folk with delusions of the sweetness of bucolic life.